Dow psychologist

Published 8:00 pm, Thursday, June 10, 2004

An industrial psychologist at The Dow Chemical Co. creates computerized tools she says can go a long way toward weeding out unqualified candidates for jobs.

Monica Hemingway's research into "prescreening tools" is based on the idea that, as companies use the Internet more to recruit candidates for jobs, they receive large numbers of applicants. So it's important to have some way of sifting out those who don't have the qualifications.

Before she came to Dow, she developed similar tools for other companies.

These Web-based questionnaires aren't going to tell everything a prospective employer needs to know, she said. And there are separate inventories to give employers a feel for an applicant's personality.

Companies might use prescreens to set minimum standards, such as sifting out half the applicant pool.

To develop good tools that gauge qualifications, companies are exacting about what they need in an employee, she said.

"There are a lot of companies out there whose tools just measure education, past work skills and that's that," she said. "If it's clearly a requirement for the job, and there are valid means of assessing it, we may go a little deeper.

"We go to soft skills, competencies," leadership and teamwork skills, "but it's not really a focus of a prescreen."

Some companies use surveys to give employers an idea of how a person makes judgments.

Hemingway's research has taught her that, the more questions on the survey, the fewer people answer. People are more likely to say "forget this" partway through, or skip questions.

It's difficult to link good job performance with how well the prescreening tool is constructed "because you've weeded out the people who likely would be performers," she said.

How good are these tools in spotting liars? It depends on the tool, Hemingway said.

"If you're asking verifiable questions, they very likely won't lie because they know they'll be checked," she said.